Our experience at FOSDEM 2026 in Brussels - from CRA and SBOM devrooms to discovering innovative open source projects like metal-stack.io(opens in new tab).
Last weekend we attended FOSDEM 2026 in Brussels, the largest free and open source software conference in Europe. Held at the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), this year's edition brought together thousands of developers, maintainers, and open source enthusiasts for two days of talks, workshops, and community building.
What is FOSDEM?
FOSDEM (Free and Open Source Software Developers' European Meeting) is an annual event organized by the community, for the community. With no registration required and completely free to attend, it embodies the open source spirit. The conference features hundreds of talks across multiple tracks, from kernel development to web technologies, from security to documentation.
The CRA Devroom
One of the devrooms this year was dedicated to the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA). The European regulation is reshaping how open source software will be developed, distributed, and maintained. Talks covered practical implications for maintainers, compliance requirements, and how the open source community is organizing to meet these new challenges while preserving the collaborative nature of FOSS development.
SBOM and Supply Chain Security
The Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) track addressed one of the most pressing concerns in modern software development: supply chain security. Sessions explored tools for generating and consuming SBOMs, integration with CI/CD pipelines, and how organizations can leverage SBOMs for vulnerability management.
The Open Source Community
What makes FOSDEM special is not just the technical content, but the community itself. Hallway conversations, spontaneous meetups, and the shared understanding that open source is more than code - it's a collaborative movement. Meeting maintainers of projects we use daily, discussing challenges with peers facing similar issues, and discovering new solutions to old problems - this is what keeps us coming back year after year.